Vocabulary Archives

Project Based Learning as a Key to Student Motivation

October 3, 2014 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

My experience as a college engineering professor for the past twenty years tells me that students who are motivated tend to perform better academically, graduate within six years of education, and to either pursue advanced degrees or transition into engineering jobs of their choosing. But how do students get motivated? Is motivation an innate skill or can it be attained? What makes a student motivated?

I am a strong advocate for project based learning. I believe that learning can only be authentic when one understands how and when knowledge attained can be applied to solve problems. I frequently give out projects in my freshman and junior classes and encourage students to think outside the box and apply what they have learned in the class to develop creative solutions. Project examples include renewable wave energy system and remotely operated vehicle designs. As I expected, students who worked on these projects appeared very enthusiastic and motivated. I was led to believe that student can become motivated when they see what they learn can be connected to reality. In other words, they see meaning in what they learn.

Five years ago, I found out motivation is not just about finding meaning in learning. I assigned a project on vegetable garden system design to my freshman students. They were to design a sustainable engineering solution based on renewable energy sources, such as wind, solar and rainwater, and that can be implemented on campus. I thought students would find this project highly relevant. In contrast, I was astonished to find out students were not motivated to work on this meaningful project! I was literally back to square one about what makes students motivated.

I came across an important psychology research finding about four years ago that led me to a solution. The research [1] suggests autonomy is an important driver for motivation. Autonomy is all about having choices. When students have choices to decide what they want, they tend to take ownership of their choices, and are willing to spend as much time as they can. Think about why someone would spend enormous time and money playing a sport like hockey (I can tell you from personal experience how expensive it is!). The simple answer is that is what they want to do. The converse is true: when students are told what to do every step of the way, they don’t feel like owning the problem because they think it is not theirs. This was so true for my garden design project example. Students didn’t choose that project, I did.

Nowadays, rather than assigning projects in class, I empower students to design their own projects. There are many challenges in this approach for both students and faculty. I have to balance autonomy with guidance and direction. Students experience, sometimes for the first time, making academic decisions. The rewards for both are well worth the effort. In addition to college students, I also mentor high school students for college preparation. Recently I mentored two high school students who wanted to have project experiences; one designed an underwater scooter, the other designed a wave energy system. They both achieved a great deal in terms of levels of confidence and problem solving skills, and more importantly got offers to their first-choice universities. Based on my experiences so far, I truly believe that educators should embrace the tools of autonomy and help our kids to reach their full potential.

[1] E. L. Deci, and R. M. Ryan. Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination in Human Behavior, NewYork: Plenum, 1985.

By Edgar An, Private Tutor

Practicing Sight Words at Home to Increase Fluency

September 23, 2014 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

Word recognition is an important domain in successful reading. Being able to immediately decode and recognize words allows a reader to focus his/her attention on the meaning of the text versus interrupting comprehension to figure out individual words. Building a student’s mastery of sight words is important in supporting a student’s reading comprehension and fluency.

Sight words are words that a person should be able to identify and read automatically and depend upon the child’s age or grade. One way to support your child’s ability to recognize age appropriate sight words at home is to increase the opportunities he or she has to see and read them. For example: make flash cards with these words written on them and have your child practice reading as many as they can. This can be made into a game by recording, on a chart sheet or calendar, how many words your child has read correctly.

Another fun and effective activity to increase your child’s exposure to sight words is to label objects in your house with flashcards that have the sight words written on them (the objects should be labeled with appropriate words, e.g. a kitchen chair should be labeled “the chair” or just “chair”). Have your child go through the house and read the flashcards, have your child read the words until all the words are recited back to you correctly. As an add on to the game, have your child collect the correctly read words and leave the cards that were read incorrectly. Once all words are read correctly, have your child read the words again, and label the objects in the house with the appropriate flashcard.

These games provide more opportunities for your child to practice reading sight words. With increased exposure and practice, your child will be more likely to automatically recognize these sight words when they come across them in reading. Ultimately allowing them to read more fluently.

For a list of the 1000 most frequently occurring sight words, refer to Fry Sight-Word Inventory

By Jessi Himmelsbach, Reading Specialist

Using PAF to Bolster Reading Comprehension

September 15, 2014 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

The PAF program is full of strategies, not only based on phonemic awareness, but overall textual awareness that can also support a reader who is struggling with the process, including students with dyslexia. The textual awareness aspect of reading is how the reader is able to give insight about what they read.

When given the opportunity to discuss a topic or concept, textual awareness allows a student to make a connection to the reading that the student may not have been able to make otherwise because they are struggling to read a passage. PAF suggests that when presenting a specific reading passage or book to the student, to discuss what they may already know about the topic.

By creating a foundation for discussion that is related to the text, the teacher initiates what is referenced as, “teacher language.” This exercise is one that absorbs what the student brings to the discussion, from their previous knowledge, and crafting different types of questions to get the student to think on many different levels. Allowing the student to discuss what they know or what they are thinking provides them with an avenue to feel successful and develop a better understanding for the text.

Where students once had difficulty synthesizing what was being read, with PAF there already is a general base of information that helps the student to connect what they are reading to the information previously discussed. Checking in with the student as they read also solidifies their ability to comprehend. Eventually the letters on the page form into words that contain valuable and interesting information.

When this occurs, the student is incredibly excited to continue the text. When reading difficulty arises, it is no longer something that makes a student want to give up. Instead, it makes them want to preserve because they crave the information that is waiting to be discovered by reading the book.

Teachers, here is an example:

“Today we are going to read, a book on giraffes. I believe there are some very interesting things about giraffes in this book, but I want to see what you already know.”

Students could reference the height, the long neck, the colors, the patches that have different shapes, even the fact that the giraffe has a purple tongue. Any of this information springboards their thinking about the selected topic. Depending on what is discussed, you can also scaffold their thinking if the text references location, nutrition, and other ideas.

“Can anyone tell me where giraffes live?” “Has anyone ever seen a giraffe in person?” “Where is a place that you can see a giraffe?” If this discussion falls short, you can also start with a visual a giraffe.

These questions, in addition to many others will help create a sense of ownership over the material before they even begin to read. It also presents intrigue because perhaps the questions asked weren’t answered, so there is suspense that will linger until the answers unfold via the text.

In these ways, educators can do more to get students excited about reading and help them to ultimately succeed.

Written by: Editorial Team, My Learning Springboard, Inc.

Unlocking Difficult Students

September 4, 2014 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

Tutors dream of being tasked with a cheerful, bright, dutiful young student, one who follows every direction and has an answer for each question. But the nature of our position often involves assisting students who aren’t the apple of their teacher’s eye.

And, that’s ok. It’s why we became tutors in the first place. Our job is to connect with the student and understand what makes him/her tick.

I’ve found that being able to shed the standard open-your-book -and-begin-the-assignment attitude is imperative when dealing with unorthodox students. For a variety of reasons, students suffering from depression or other behavioral issues do not take to standard classroom instruction and most likely won’t take to your tutoring prompts either. I’ve therefore found it necessary in these cases to go on the offensive and get creative.

Marc was one of these kids. An enormously intelligent adolescent who suffered from severe depression, he had difficulty with social interaction and frequently stayed home from school. When I arrived for my initial session with him, he was not in the best of moods.

Within five minutes he excused himself and I could hear him complain to his mother that he didn’t want to do this anymore. I heard violent screams from the other room: “Tell him to leave! I hate this! I can’t believe you’re doing this to me!” His mother apologetically came back into the living room and told me this probably wasn’t going to work out. But I asked if I could just talk to him once more and she agreed. “Hey Marc,” I whispered, “Can I come in to ask you a question?” “NO! GET OUT!” I realized I needed to come up with something to defuse the situation. “Why don’t we head to the coffee shop I passed by on the way here? Maybe a walk outside will help clear your mind. We’ll get some hot chocolate–we don’t even need to study.”

He was not expecting this. His mood changed instantly. He came out of his room as if nothing had happened (which I thought was a bit odd, but I went with it) and began putting on his coat. His mother shrugged her shoulders with a look of let’s-not-jinx-it and we were off. Our session that day was essentially Yu-Gi-Oh breaks interspersed with Biology, but I succeeded in forming a rapport with him, one that seemed unthinkable an hour prior.

Coming up with interesting games on the fly, creating scenarios that pertain directly to their lives, and making an occasional joke or two are just as important as the actual study material. I’ve found it produces better academic results and helps them adjust to new environments outside their academic lives as well. We would be well-suited to place a higher value on these tutoring techniques.

By David Hollander, Private Tutor

Diet Tips to Combat ADHD

August 29, 2014 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

I have had ADHD my whole life and I never took medication. Some years ago, when I started to be in charge of the ADHD program as primary care doctor, I realized that medications weren’t the only way to treat ADHD. I have been changing in my diet and feel so much more focused and calmed. I proposed these changes to the families I was working with and all of them had better results than only with medication.

As you may know, ADHD is the most commonly studied and diagnosed psychiatric disorder in children and its manifestations are enhanced or diminished by many factors, and one of them is food.

The goal of the ADHD diets is to help the brain to function better and diminish the symptoms of the disorder such as restlessness or lack of attention. To combat high levels of anxiety we have to be sure the brain is well fed including food rich in carbohydrates, tryptophan, group B vitamins, iron and phospholipids. There are also some foods that enhance hyperactivity because they have exciting substances in them that we should avoid.

Include these foods in the diet:

Proteins: as Legumes, cheese, eggs, meat, chicken, fish and nuts (especially walnuts, Cajun and macadamia for vitamin B). It is important to include them in every meal, especially breakfast, because they control anxiety and improve concentration.
Complex Carbohydrates: as whole grain cereals, whole grains, vegetables (especially green ones because of the iron) and fruit (especially apple, melon, raspberries and avocado because of the vitamin B) . Their content of fiber is high, and that makes us take longer to digest them. They also avoid abrupt changes in blood sugar levels. Eating complex carbohydrates 3 hours before going to bed at night can help to sleep better.
Fatty Acids Omega 3: as tuna fish, salmon, walnuts, linseed, soy and canola oil.
Herbs: Some of them help to make the nervous function slower down, as orange blossoms, hawthorn, juniper, lemon balm, passionflower, valerian, and linden. You can add it to some food or desserts and also drink it as infusions.

It is recommended to take multivitamin supplements that will contribute with the 100% of minerals and vitamins that we need, only if the diet that we have is unbalanced.

Eliminate these foods in the diet:

Additives: Since 1975 Benjamin Feingold proposed that artificial colorants and flavors could cause hyperactivity in children. Many studies performed the last years have proven that is a real fact, which is why the American Academy of Pediatrics agrees with the elimination of preservatives and colorants in the diet of ADHD patients. We should eliminate specially the red and yellow colorants and the food additives as Aspartame, MSG and nitrites.
Sugar: It enhances hyperactivity. We should diminish table sugar, candy, chocolate, cookies, high sugar cereals, juices, soda. Sugar shouldn’t be more than 10% of your child’s daily calories.
Caffeine: Studies show that a small amount of caffeine could help with some symptoms of ADHD in children. Although, the secondary effects of caffeine, after the blood levels drop, can be worst. ADHD people should avoid coffee, black tea, green tea, chocolate, ginseng,

How to start the plan:
Start to change food habits slowly
Write down the food and the times you take the medications.
Sleep enough time to rest.
Exercise regularly at least 20 to 30 minutes every day.
Learn how to breathe to help manage anxiety and anger.
Fallow a healthy diet.

Some examples of healthy snacks are:
String cheese with crackers and an apple in pieces.
Whole wheat toast with Mozzarella cheese and 1 slice of turkey ham
Chopped fruit with vanilla yogurt
Whole grain cereal with nonfat milk
Celery sticks with cream cheese
Sliced apple with peanut butter
Banana with ricotta cheese and honey
Whole wheat toasts with cottage cheese and raspberries
Guacamole with carrot sticks
Trail mix with raisins, blueberries and walnuts.

By Dr. Javiera Monárdez, Private Tutor

Project Based Learning as a Key to Student Motivation

Practicing Sight Words at Home to Increase Fluency

Using PAF to Bolster Reading Comprehension

Unlocking Difficult Students

Diet Tips to Combat ADHD

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